Bittersweet
by Mother Zephyr
Summary: Two years after the final Battle Draco is feeling bitter. Crippled and disfigured from the final battle, he has closeted himself away from the world until a celebration of the final battle brings him back out in society. AN: a second chapter is coming.


Title: Bittersweet  
  
Summary: Two years after the final Battle Draco is feeling bitter. Crippled and disfigured from the final batter he has closeted himself away from the world until a celebration of the final battle brings him back out in society where he witnesses the very public break up of the girl he only dreamed he could love and her flame haired fiancée.  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warning: Sexual liberties taken with the sleeping.  
  
Author's Note: Ok I think I got everything the requester wanted except for a really long story. I really had a hard time wrapping my head around the senseless drama and injury but I hope I got it right for you! Please tell me what you think!  
  
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Bittersweet  
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So many things had changed in the two years since the Class of 1998 Graduated from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry; so many more had stayed exactly the same with no change in sight. While it was true that a year prior he had been sitting in this very seat sullenly sipping at an identical tumbler of fire-whiskey as he observed the identical crowd of fools celebrating an event that had taken place nearly two years before.  
  
It had been an anticlimactic end the reign of fear and never would have taken place if Draco Malfoy hadn't nearly sacrificed himself for Harry Bloody Potter. But no one remembered that Draco, the new Lord of Malfoy, had rescued the boy-who-lived by pushing Potter out of the way just as the killing curse fell from Voldemort's thin lips. The only things that had saved Draco from the instant death of the curse was an ancient iron amulet handed down from mother to son, a powerful healing draught that he and Professor Snape had been working on to try to protect against the Cruatius Curse and the fact that the curse only had just grazed his left shoulder.  
  
Draco didn't get away with his act of heroism scot-free. No, he couldn't be like Perfect Potter who walked away from the bloody battlefield with nary a scratch. No, Draco Malfoy was left crippled by his lack of self- preservation that was supposed to have been drummed into him since birth. It must have been some deeply seated Gryffindor courage that had forced him to make the sacrifice, and it had left him with this scarred shriveled thing that had once been a lean, toned, muscular arm.  
  
So here he was on the second anniversary sitting alone nursing his drink until he could leave finally this sodding party behind. An hour or two more and the revelers would be sufficiently drunk enough not to notice his departure. The fucking hypocrites... No one wanted to be bothered with the cripple. Pansy had left him a year ago, as soon as the mediwizards at St. Mungo's had given him the news that the damage the spell had done to his arm could never be repaired. The scars would never fade and he would never have full use of his left arm again. It was then they also noticed that his entire left side was weakened, so much so that now he had to walk with the aid of a cane. In a bitter bit of irony Draco had his father's wand replaced with his own in that snake-headed device of pride and station.  
  
Sometimes as he walked down Diagon Alley leaning heavily on the silver headed cane wizards and witches alike did a double take at the young Malfoy. It was often remarked to Draco how much he looked like his progenitor to which Draco would sneer a reminder that his father was dead and nothing of the man existed in himself aside for a handful of genes.  
  
His hair was long and still the white blonde of his youth, though he most often wore it braided down his back tied with a thong tonight it was loose and hung around his face like a curtain.  
  
So here he was, the once most eligible bachelor of all the pureblooded families was now treated like a pariah, both reviled and ignored by turns. Draco was torn from his self-pity by a commotion across the room.  
  
Hermione Jane Granger and Ronald Bilious Weasley, the golden couple of the war effort, were having a bit of a spat. Draco smirked; the golden couple of the wizarding world was obviously a bit tarnished. His eyes widened as Hermione's hand flew across the face of her fiancée. She turned and sped away from him. Draco was even more surprised when Hermione, sniffling sank into the chair beside him. His first thought was that she obviously didn't realize whom she had seated herself with. He was about to apprise her of her error when the scent of her perfume wafted over to him He inhaled the heady scent of roses and spice and was instantly thrust into the throws of memory.  
  
He had stumbled upon her in the seventh-year study lounge the night before the Potions NEWT. She was fast asleep on one of the comfortable leather sofas with a heavy thick book open on the floor where it had fallen out of her hand and a quill that was still grasped in her right hand, slowly becoming crushed in her sleepy grip. Draco had watched her silently not realizing that he had walked closer to her supine form.  
  
She shifted in her sleep and his eyes widened as her skirt rode up her hips and her legs spread wide. His eyes were glued on her white panties stretched tight across her core. It was as if his brain turned off and his hormones took over because without knowing what he was doing he was suddenly on his knees beside the couch and his fingers were trailing up the soft skin of her inner thigh. As his fingers brushed over her fabric- covered folds she moaned softly. He pulled his hand away but then returned as he assured himself that she was asleep.  
  
He couldn't explain why but her moan galvanized him to take further liberty with her body. He leaned forward and placed a soft kiss to her and was rewarded with a slight rising of her hips in a silent sleepy invitation. He longed to taste her but stamped down the urge and contented himself with stroking her with his fingers.  
  
He ran his thumb down the length of the panties over her hidden treasure and when his finger brushed her clit, a keening moan again escaped her. Soon, he was enthralled by the reactions he was pulling from her sleep- induced passion as he rubbed her clit harder through her panties. She bucked under his hand and he could feel her center grasping and pulsing. He pressed his palm to cover her, letting her thrusting body find its release. At the height of her climax she moaned a name his name. Her eyes began to flutter and he bolted fearing that she had come awake.  
  
He still cherished the memory. He had replayed the scene in his mind over the years and it was in his fantasies that she came to him with words of love. To his never ending consternation she had started dating the Weasel a short time later. Then final battle had occurred and afterwards Draco had hidden away from the pity that he was sure that would be forthcoming.  
  
Now the woman that he very nearly obsessed over was sitting beside him after what looked like a very public break up with her fiancée. Sliding a look at her, he saw her rummaging in her purse and watched as she took out a packet of cigarettes and silver lighter. Her hand shook violently as she tried to light the fag and after a moment she gave up in defeat with a sigh.  
  
He slid his nearly full drink in front of her and fished a handkerchief out of his pocket. Without thinking he turned fully to her and wiped the tears from her cheeks and lashes. He looked into her shocked eyes and gave her a small smile.  
  
"Whatever the Weasel did I am sure he deserved the smack and more." He put the scrap of cloth in her hand and said softly, "Blow your nose."  
  
She obliged then took a healthy drink of his fire-whiskey coughing a bit as the alcohol burned a path down her throat. With hands a bit more steady she picked up the fag again and before she could react a flame erupted in front of her and she inhaled deeply letting the nicotine settle her frayed nerves.  
  
She had turned to return the handkerchief to its owner when the swirling monogram on the corner caught her eye, DGM. The figure rose beside her and she looked up into sad haunted grey eyes as she just realized who the beautiful man was beside her.  
  
"Keep it," Draco Malfoy said in a soft voice devoid of the malice she had come to expect from him.  
  
As he turned to leave her alone she put her hand on his arm keeping him from leaving. He turned his grey eyes back to her and before she could say anything a cold voice interrupted.  
  
"Five minutes and you are already latching onto another man." Hermione turned red with embarrassment as Ron's slightly slurred voice drew the attention of the surrounding tables. "And Malfoy of all people. I guess he was right all through school. Breeding does bear out."  
  
Hermione gasped at his hateful words but before she could even begin to respond, Draco took her hand and helped her out of her chair. He tucked her hand into the crook of his left arm and then spoke with the distant coldness that only a child of the aristocracy could muster.  
  
"Weasley, right now you are showing the signs of what alcohol and breeding at its worst produces." With those cold cutting words Draco turned with Hermione on his arm and walked out.  
  
The fact that Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy walked out of the brightly decorated room and into the dark night of London mere minutes after breaking her engagement to Ronald Weasley was the subject of a flurry of gossip for the rest of the evening.  
  
Neither spoke as they walked for a bit down the dimly lit street. Before long they found themselves in front of the Leakey Cauldron. After a moment Draco led Hermione inside the smoky pub and sat her in a booth. She watched as he leaned heavily on the snake-headed cane that had once been such a part of his father's persona. He had a short conversation with Tom, the innkeeper and then made his way back across the pub, the cane tapping on the stone floor with every step. For the first time she noticed the black sling that cradled his left arm and she remembered the sacrifice he had made two years ago when he had saved Harry from Voldemort's killing curse.  
  
He pressed a key into her hand. "Stay here tonight and for as long as you wish. You should know that the entire scene will be in the Prophet tomorrow, so I suggest you make use of the room until the fervor dies down."  
  
He paused for a moment before he nodded seemingly to himself then turned to leave once more. Hermione stopped him again, with a hand on his arm.  
  
"Will you stay for a while?" She asked softly.  
  
"I don't want your pity Granger." He said almost angrily as he turned away again.  
  
"I don't have any for you." She said as she came to her feet and grabbed his arm again. She stepped up to his back almost hugging him from behind as she whispered in his ear. "I know it was you, Draco. That night in the study lounge, I watched you leave."  
  
He turned back around and looked into her eyes. They held no anger, no malice and maybe most importantly desire. She took his hand in hers and led him up the stairs to the room he had rented for her.  
  
Ten months later...  
  
On a dark night that howled with a vicious storm a cry was raised in the halls of St. Mungo's. A child with a dusting of brown curls and grey eyes looked up at her father as he cradled her against his chest. The man looked down at the woman who had accepted him, injury and shortcomings together, and never looked back.  
  
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Author's note: Ok that was a very fluffy ending and probably not as long as you would have liked but I hope that I have met all of your criteria for the story and I hope that you liked it!  
  
It is possible that I may be adding more to this story... In your review tell me what scenes you would like to see and I will try to fulfill your wishes......  
  
FIC REQUEST #90:  
  
Rating(s) of the Fic: R to NC-17  
  
3-5 Things to Include in the Fic:  
  
1. Post-7th year and Voldemort is dead, and Draco is on the good side- Hogwarts  
  
2. Hermione started liking Draco at end of sixth year when he almost sacrificed himself to save Harry, and Draco is bitter  
  
3. Hermione gets pregnant  
  
4. Sensless drama and injury  
  
5. It is long, and has a happy ending, and includes romance drama and romance fluff  
  
What Not to Include in the Fic:  
  
1) Death... no death  
  
2) Lucuis Malfoy or any Death Eater threat at all (other evil force can be rising however...)  
  
3) Student/Teacher relationships  
  
4) Incest 


End file.
